By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
(Basseterre, St. Kitts) – Fourteen year old Rae-Dawn Thomas is a Hollywood starlet in the making. In her acting roles she would remind anyone of a young precocious Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet. But outside of role playing she is reserve and modest, two qualities rarely found in Hollywood stars.
She seems to be a different person in her role as Peggy, the heroine of a Moses Byron film, “Hurry Dog Eats Raw Corn,” which is currently in production. Rae-Dawn portrays a rebellious teenager whose impatience for adult experiences puts her in conflict with her mother.
In playing Peggy, Rae-Dawn displays the mannerisms one would typically associate with a saucy teenager. She articulates this in the speech, walk, gesture and facial expression of her assumed character.
Yet when interacting with Rae-Dawn outside of role play, one recognises that her precociousness on stage is a demonstration of her talent and intelligence, not any flaw of her own character.
Rae-Dawn already has a few achievements in drama. At age 10 she joined the drama class at Tucker Clarke Primary School and competed in the FINCO Primary School Drama Festival. She won the overall best actress award in the finals of that competition.
The film she is now working on is not the first time she has appeared in front the camera. In December last year, she did a monologue on DVD.
She also participated in Drama Camp 2007 in Tortola. She won a Most Valuable Performer (MVP) trophy for that competition. She placed first in all the dramatic activities at the camp, except the story-telling activity in which she came second. She captured the MVP award based on her stellar performance.
Rae-Dawn’s accomplishments come from hard work and a love and passion for drama. She devotes a lot of time to drama and the production of the film. She and other youngsters meet regularly on Saturdays with Mr. Byron.
The workshop group, Youth Exploring Talent Theatre, helps them to practice their talents, and Mr. Byron provides motivation and guidance to Rae-Dawn and her friends. Mr. Byron spends time on aspects of positive character building in young people. He instils in them that thoughts become words, then actions, followed habit which ultimately forms character and shape their destiny. He urges them to stay focus in school, obey their parents and abandon desires for material things. Like Mr. Byron’s pep talk, the film touches on these relevant issues for young people and charts destructive course these issues might lead to.
Since the start of filming, the group has been meeting on Sundays. They rehearse on Saturdays and sometimes film a scene or two. But sometimes Rae-Dawn and her friends work on Sundays to shoot major scenes when required.
Despite the effort of Rae-Dawn and all member of the theatre group, they still face many obstacles en route to further success. Mr. Byron feels that not much emphasis is placed on developing dramatic talent in the Federation.
The filming of some of the scenes of “Hurry Dog Will Eat Raw Corn” was accomplished solely on the group’s tenacious effort to see this project through. The group does not have any major sponsor and the group’s weekend workshops are free and opened to those who are self-motivated and willing to work hard.
Rae-Dawn is an example of what development in arts – drama, in this case – can bring to youths. She and her friends are among the top students in their respective high schools or primary schools. She exudes confidence on and off the stage and she attributes this quality as something gain from the myriad of roles she has performed in her dramatic stint so far.
Rae-Dawn believes in grass-root theatre, and although she would like to pursue a career in acting and eventually go to Hollywood for that big break, she still would like to work to develop local theatre here in St. Kitts. She plans to follow in the steps of her mentor, Mr. Byron, and work with young people who have an interest in drama.
Youth Exploring Talent Theatre is also working on a pre-Independence monologue competition. Rae-Dawn will be representing constituency number one and will compete against seven other performers representing the other constituencies in St. Kitts.
Rae-Dawn’s monologue on DVD may be purchased at Willet’s Photo Shop and the Bible Depot in Basseterre.
